Solid polymer electrolytes have attracted considerable attention, owing to their flexibility and safety. At present, poly(ethylene oxide) is the most widely studied polymer electrolyte matrix. It exhibits higher safety than the polyolefin diaphragm used in traditional lithium-ion batteries. However, it readily crystallizes at room temperature, resulting in low ionic conductivity, and the preparation process involves organic solvents. In this study, from the perspective of molecular design, solvent-free polyaspartate polyurea (PAEPU) and the cheap and easily available polypropylene (PP) nonwoven fabric were used as support materials for the PAEPU/PP composite solid polymer electrolyte (PAEPU/PPm-CPE). This CPE has good thermal stability, dimensional stability, flexibility, and mechanical properties. Among the different CPEs that were analyzed, PAEPU/PP10-CPE@20 had the highest ionic conductivity, which was reinforced with 10 g/m(2) PP nonwoven fabric and the content of lithium salt was 20 wt %. Furthermore, PAEPU/PP10-CPE@20 exhibited the highest electrochemical stability with an electrochemical window value of 5.53 V. Moreover, the capacity retention rate of the Li//PAEPU/PP10-CPE@20//LiFePO4 half-cell was 96.82% after 150 cycles at 0.05 C and 60 degrees C, and the capacity recovery rate in the rate test reached 98.81%.
The existing in situ preparation methods of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) often require the use of a solvent, which would lead to a complicated process and potential safety hazards. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a solvent-free in situ method to produce SPEs with good processability and excellent compatibility. Herein, a series of polyaspartate polyurea-based SPEs (PAEPU-based SPEs) with abundant (PO)x(EO)y(PO)z segments and cross-linked structures were developed by systematically regulating the molar ratios of isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and isophorone diisocyanate trimer (tri-IPDI) in the polymer backbone and LiTFSI concentrations via an in situ polymerization method, which gave rise to good interfacial compatibility. Furthermore, the in situ-prepared PAEPU-SPE@D15 based on the IPDI/tri-IPDI molar ratio of 2:1 and 15 wt % LiTFSI exhibits an improved ionic conductivity of 6.80 × 10-5 S/cm at 30 °C and could reach 10-4 orders of magnitude when the temperature was above 40 °C. The Li|LiFePO4 battery based on PAEPU-SPE@D15 had a wide electrochemical stability window of 5.18 V, demonstrating a superior interface compatibility toward LiFePO4 and the lithium metal anode, exhibited a high discharge capacity of 145.7 mAh g-1 at the 100th cycle and a capacity retention of 96.8%, and retained a coulombic efficiency of above 98.0%. These results showed that the PAEPU-SPE@D15 system displayed a stable cycle performance, excellent rate performance, and high safety compared with PEO systems, indicating that the PAEPU-based SPE system may play a crucial role in the future.
Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) is a kind of medical polymer material with good biodegradability and histocompatibility, which is widely used in postoperative anti-adhesion materials. In this paper, PLGA microfiber membrane was successfully prepared with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) as the main material by electrospinning technology. The surface morphology, wettability, dimensional stability and mechanical properties of PLGA microfiber films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile testing machine. The results show that the average diameter of the prepared PLGA fiber is 2.218~2.313 μm, the elongation at break of the fiber film is up to 193%, and the dimensional stability and wettability of the fiber film are maintained at 37°C. The degradation cycle is 2~3 months.
13 November 2023 in Transactions on Materials, Biotechnology and Life Sciences
Polyethyleneimine (PEI) is a cationic polymer that has excellent gene transfection effects as a gene transfection reagent. Its excellent proton sponge effect has attracted much attention in the field of vaccine adjuvants. However, its high positive charge density leads to high toxicity, which limits its application. In this paper, polyethyleneimine modified by stearyl chloride was used to reduce toxicity to obtain SA-PEI. The partical size of composite particles formed by SA-PEI adjuvant and ovalbumin (OVA) were smaller than 200 nm. In vivo experiments of Balb/c mice experiments showed that, compared with unmodified PEI, SA-PEI could significantly enhance the specific immune response to OVA and may promote the endocytosis of macrophages. This study clearly provides a promising cationic polymer adjuvant for the vaccine field.
13 November 2023 in Transactions on Materials, Biotechnology and Life Sciences
Aiming at the low molecular weight of polylactic acid due to the presence of water molecules in the ring-opening polymerization of racemic lactide, this paper selected racemic lactide as the main raw material, stannous caprylate as the catalyst, and cetyl alcohol as the initiator, and studied the effects of recrystallization process conditions such as the number of recrystallization and drying time on the purity of monomer. The influence of initiator dosage on the properties of racemic polylactic acid was also studied. The purity, water content and free acid content of racemic lactide were determined by infrared spectrometer, differential scanning calorimeter, Gel Permeation Chromatography and tensile testing machine. The molecular weight and mechanical properties of racemic polylactic acid were characterized. The results show that the purity of racemic lactide after recrystallization can reach 99.3%, the water content is as low as 0.008% and the free acid content is less than 0.1%. When the amount of initiator is 0.13%, the molecular weight of the prepared racemic polylactic acid is 14.06 KDa and the tensile strength is 37 MPa.
Poly (DL-lactide)/Poly (ethylene glycol) diblock copolymer is successfully synthesized with mPEG and DL-LA as main raw materials, and the residual monomers of the polymer were removed by recrystallization. FT-IR is used to characterize the structure of the polymer. Gas chromatography is used to determine the residual monomers and residual solvent of the polymer. The solubility of polymer in different solvents was determined, and the effect of different solvent systems on the removal of residual monomers in copolymer were discussed. The results showed that the Poly(DL-lactide)/Poly(ethylene glycol) diblock copolymer was recrystallized with acetone/ isopropyl ether solvent system has the best ability to remove residual monomers, and the residual monomers of the obtained polymer are less than 0.01 wt%, the total residual solvent is only 0.24 wt%, and the productivity is as high as 95.5 wt%.